Teatime in my Garden

Devin's cookies

I had promised Devin a batch of chocolate chip cookies over the weekend. When I called to discuss what specifically he wanted we talked about various alternatives like orange chocolate chip cookies that I make. Devin suggested mint but did not know if I had a recipe. Well I have been baking enough varieties just off from the original recipe that it is not that difficult to make something up. Luckily they turned out. Here is Devin's new chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Mint Chocolate Chip cookies

½ cup butter flavored shortening

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

4-5 drops of green food coloring

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 cups flour

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Cream butter and shortening with the sugars. Add eggs one at a time and beating well after each. Add vanilla and peppermint extracts. Add in green food coloring if desired.

Mix dry ingredients together and add to the creamy mixture. Can add up to 1/4 cup more flour if needed.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a small cookie scoop or spoon drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper covered cookie sheets.

 Bake 375 oven  about 7 minutes using the small scoop, or until golden brown around edges and a bit on top.

The green tint is just not really showing up in that photo.

Halloween

This past halloween was the second year that we have let the children go trick or treating. I had a few simple rules for their costumes, 1 They had to be creative and 2 They had to be cheap or homemade. This is what the end result was.

Treanna as a Jedi Knight. She originally wanted to be Shaak Ti but struggled with the time to get my help making the head part. I told her we would concentrate on the jedi part of the costume as that would be our fall back plan. Thus:

Of course you cannot see her awesome hair do (a leia-like roll around the head like a crown), or her riding style boots and other small details that make the outfit. She has her Dad's purple lightsaber in hand and a back up hanging from her utility belt.

Alaric as the 9th Doctor from BBC's Doctor Who television show.

Yes that is a sonic screwdriver prop. His cosutme is so dark you really cannot see how neat it turned out. He chose the typical v-neck sweater for his top and has slacks and oxford style dress shoes. The coat was the hardest to find but I did find it second-hand and he thought it was perfect (which is all the counts). I really wanted him to be the 10th Doctor but did not want to spend $70+ on a pinstripe suit!

They had fun and still have too much candy left over.

Time moves on

This seems almost like a dream.

Especially when just this last week I took this:

While I am excited about November, Summer seemed just like yesterday.

Tomorrow I shall post Halloween costumes!

No updates...

Yes I know I have not been updating. I realized that I was having attitude failure and since I had decided to really only keep my blog positive and informative I was struggling with things to write. This is not a journal I don't write everything, I keep this the high points of my life as a way to share with family and friends.

 On the technical side it was time consuming to embed the photographs that I wanted of the kids and such. I am still undecided about how to do that part or make it easier to do.

I am hoping that since I am mentally in a place where I am wanting to post again that I will start doing so.
 

Vegas Trip summary

In November we took a family vacation. I don't know if we had ever taken a vacation where we went somewhere on an airplane that wasn't to visit family. We like visiting family but we also wanted our children to experience a vacation where we went somewhere on an airplane, did touristy things, and stayed in a hotel.

We were gone for an entire week and we had a fantastic time! Devin only had to work a single day during the middle of the week to do presentations for the conference he was speaking at. The conference provided us with a huge suite and we paid a bit extra so the kids had their own beds which was smart! We only stayed at Mandalay Bay for 3 nights and then moved down to the Excalibur. Mandalay Bay was extremely nice! Excalibur was very middle of the road not that we were expecting great rooms for the price we paid.

Our swimming lessons were put to excellent use the couple of times we went to the swimming area at Mandalay Bay. That was fantastic, we all loved the wave pool and the lazy river ride. The kids really enjoyed the current and swimming in circles. Devin's parents came down for part of the week as well and we had a wonderful time with them too.

So we did a ton of touristy things. We discovered this nifty passport thingy we could purchase that allowed us to do a bunch of different attractions each day for 1 price. We bought ours for 5 days. The things we did: Start Trek the experience. Treanna and Alaric did NOT enjoy the Borg experience so much so that Treanna refused to do the Klingon part of it. Devin regretted doing the Klingon part as he was quite motion sick afterwards. We did enjoy eating at the Cafe as well. The kids enjoyed their Glok! a traditional klingon dish. We also had the odd experience of a vulcan telling me that my children were excellent examples of humanity. I just about died laughing. However at this point our children were extremely tired and had been up for 12 or more hours.

We went to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage and enjoyed it so much we went back another day with Devin's parents. We went to the Eiffel Tower experience with Devin's parents. We also toured all sorts of casinos and just looked! There was so much to see and it was all larger than life. We all really enjoyed the Bellagio fountains as well as the Conservatory inside the Bellagio. We went through the King Tut's tomb replica at the Luxor a couple of times and the kids and I did the ride thingy they had there as well. I also went on the Manhattan Express roller coaster with the kids. They had not been on a roller coaster before so it was an interesting experience. I am still not sure how I convinced them to go on it again. Then they somehow talked their father into try it out. Devin and the roller coaster did not get along at all. We also went to M&M world as well as the Coca Cola store.

In all we had a wonderful trip and are looking forward to planning another family vacation next year. We did learn a couple of things, one of which that we want to look into renting a condo/apartment type thing for future vacations for meal planning. Because of various allergies and just plain choosiness eating was a struggle some days. The other thing was that renting a car was a good thing in Las Vegas, everything is so far apart that we still did a ton of walking but when we were at one far end of the strip getting to the very opposite end would have been more of a pain without the vehicle.

Vegas 2007

I just uploaded a couple of photos from our Vegas trip in November 2007. I am slowly working on figuring out what I want to blog.

This picture was taken on our way out to baggage claim at the Las Vegas airport. There are some neat large statue like things of various desert animals. The children being the geeky kids they are decided they wanted to pretend to run away from scorponok in the desert ala Transformers movie.

This one almost needs no explanation. Except maybe that we had lunch at Planet Hollywood. Not that any of us thought the food was all that good. The decor was awesome food not so much.

Interesting thing is, after looking through all the pictures I think this was the only picture of all 4 of us at the same time while we were in Las Vegas. I did get a few family pictures taken by professionals. If I can manage somehow to get my scanner working again, I might even try getting copies of them online.

A link to our online newsletter

For Christmas 2007

So much to blog

Not even sure where to start.

Alaric had a birthday and a party with friends. We have been tearing through the house and cleaning more.  Did our room and Alaric's room. Still have the girl's room to go. I finally fixed the shelves in my craft cabinet and made small amounts of progress on my personal hell hole. We all had a 2 day virus of some sort and got over it. We have about 21 days til we leave on Vacation to Las Vegas and quite things happening between now and then.

Oh on a happy note the kids finally started their swim lessons. The first try was cancelled because of an imbalance in the pool chemicals. Then the second try was cancelled because they were both getting over this virus where they were exhausted and had fevers. (The virus? Yeah both children went to bed WAY early 1 night and slept over 14 hours each on the night they were sickest.) So finally they had their first lesson early Saturday morning. They loved it and their teacher was fantastic. Devin and I sat on a bench and giggled madly at their antics. She kept them having fun yet by the time their hour was up they were nearly swimming. Today after a long sleep in to the point we all missed church we went to the Family Swim in the afternoon. We all had a good time and Devin and I were just amazed at how much more progress the kids made practicing today. I have high hopes that they will be swimming by the time we go to Vegas.

Notes to myself of things to blog about. Alaric's birthday including his Lego birthday cake (with pictures). My pretty fall mums by the front door (pictures of course!). And um something that I can't remember.

Kids clothing and my tinkerbell cup

Some days you feel like if you had a camera or a tape measure you could actually watch your children grow. In the last 10 days both of my children have filled out to the point where pants that fit are too tight. On top of that they both probably grew about an inch. Treanna seemed to have grown about an inch in the length of her arms alone. With the cooler weather I have started going through their clothing with a more critical eye. Well it got to the point by this past weekend where neither child had any clothing that fit. On a suggestion of a friend I got a coupon and took them to the OshKosh store in Woodinville with the plan that if we did not find things there we would head to Target. I of course made a list and went through their clothing a bit before we went to try and see what they both really needed. I determined that each needed 2 pairs of jeans and a zippered hooded sweatshirt. Well I found those plus a pair of sweatpants for each. They are both happy and it is obvious they grew as the clothing was the next size up (A a 10slim and T a 14slim) and they both have a good couple of inches in length to grow before they get too short again. They love their new sweatshirts and even wore them to school today.

Yesterday and today I helped the children put their clean clothes away and went through everything in their closets and drawers. Anything they refused to wear or I didn't like went out the door. They each have nice clean clothing hanging and in their drawers. Alaric still has a few things that will fit for the next couple of sizes. Treanna got her next size box completely cleaned out, everything fit that was in their. Their might be a single pair of sweats that are still too big but I am going to try washing them to see if they shrink first. It still amazes me to realize just how much they both grew in the last month alone. Having them try on all their clothing really made the difference. I know what fits them now. For example I did not know that a red shirt of Treanna's was really a 3/4 length sleeve. She has grown that much since springtime when we put the shirt up til autumn.

As for the Tinkerbell cup. Well that is an interesting story. I went to a Tupperware party and won a prize for free merchandise. Unfortunately I had already bought the only things I needed/wanted from the catalog so had to stretch a bit to find something else. So I got a Tinkerbell cup for me. It is fun and makes me remember to drink my water. The kids were slightly disgusted by it but I am amused so don't care. Apparently I am already known as the weird Mom so I guess I am good. 

Now to continue my tear through the house. I have rearranged kitchen cupboards and cleared out some stuff but have more to do. I have cleared out my clothes and got rid of everything that doesn't fit, doesn't go with anything else or I just won't wear. Have done some work on the dining room but have the living room, the front room and my craft area to go. My craft area especially needs it as the shelves in my cabinet seemed to have fallen down. Perfect excuse to dump more stuff from the cabinet. Am I really going to ever do that project? Time to ask the hard questions. I have 4 1/2 weeks before we leave on vacation so need to have my decluttering done by then. The week after we get back is fall clean up. I want a very large and distinguished pile by then, as well as whatever can be donated or freecycled before then.

Well it really is Autumn

There is a blanket of dead leaves over my grass. There seem to be dead dry leaves everywhere around my house. It took quite some time to clean them out of the carport today. There are lots and lots of spiders and their little egg sacs everywhere too. I cleaned off the cobwebs and what spiders and eggs I could find while cleaning up today. I spent about 2 hours cleaning out my carport. It has been home to spiders, garbage and other junk for most of the late spring and all summer. Today I decided enough was enough. I have a very large and distinguished pile of trash ready for fall cleanup already. I even managed to clear off several shelves of things that were just out there and replaced them with a small cabinet that had doors that was already in the carport. I still have more to do but the carport was swept, cleared out, moved around a bit as needed, and now my car is even parked in it. I actually think I cleared it out enough that we could park both cars in there.

The kids seem to be doing well back at school. Not a lot of homework which is slightly throwing off the evening groove. So far I have been enjoying my time to myself and have actually gotten some overdue things done. I don't necessarily feel like I have done enough. But something is better than nothing. Most importantly I am not feeling behind on anything really. We even have begun to tweak the evening routines so things get done around the house but on a regular basis and no one does too much. So far we have been working on it only this week but it seems to be going better. Of course we have a new incentive in the house to really get things done. Devin got an Xbox for his birthday. Granted it is an older system and not up to date but heck it is fun. The kids have been enjoying Mech Assault and Devin has been enjoying Halo. The other game that came with the one we bought was Syberia. I have been wanting to play this game since before it came out in 2002. It is a different kind of game than others I have played before. Some of the game play was frustrating but I enjoyed it overall. I actually finished it completely last night(I love the online hint/walkthrough websites!).

I am glad that I decided not to really buy the children any school clothes yet. They both just had or are having a growth spurt. Alaric has outgrown nearly all his pants in the last 2 weeks. Luckily he still has a few until I can figure out where he is at. I have decided to just wash what clothes they have more often and get rid of things that are definitely too small. Then we will go from there as we figure out what they really need and would wear.

In other news it is official we are actually taking a "family" vacation. In November all 4 of us are going to be flying to Las Vegas for a week. Granted Devin will be doing some work in there somewhere but it is mostly vacation. We are all excited and looking forward to it. I am even trying to get the kids some swimming lessons before we go down so we can actually take advantage of the swimming pools if the weather cooperates.

Review of how the Bento lunch was received

The children both seemed to enjoy the Bento lunch. Honestly in some ways I found it easier to make and get ready than the standard lunch. I think part of that was just that it was fun and I had stuff for Bento. I did not have everything needed for the standard sandwich, cookie, carrots, and some sort of cracker/chip lunch.

Treanna has Hello Kitty stuff enough for 2 different days. She is quite happy with the sheer amount of pinkness she has.

Alaric however is using other things. He liked the size of his sister's boxes but could NOT tolerate the Hello Kitty. Not that I blame him. We have tried it with the sandwich keeper containers from Tupperware and those so far have worked out pretty well. However after looking online I could not really find a box that he really liked that was not a lot more money than I was prepared to spend. So as a trial I bought one of the HK boxes in blue and tried taking off the HK part. It worked suprisingly well. With a little fine wet/dry sandpaper and running water I managed to get the character off the top with only a little effort. After it had dried I used some colored permanent markers and made a small turtle design on the top. He was quite pleased with it when he saw it Friday morning.

So as you can see they are interesting to look at a good size and hold a lot of food. The ones on Friday held baby carrots, extra roast beef, rice, roast beef stars and cheese stars with some olives for color on the rice for the top layer. The bottom layer held lemon jello, green grapes, watermelon circles, and vanilla sugar wafer cookies. They had a little plastic spoon for the jello and a small pick to eat the fruit with. The children say they have had plenty of time to finish and have not gotten teased at all. I like it as somehow it seems easier to get a good balance of foods into them. I have been liking them enough that I even went and bought me a green hello kitty bento box since it was only a dollar. I figured having an easy way to pack me an appropriate lunch couldn't be all bad either. I am still waiting for the interesting container I got for myself to come from  Tupperware but then I will have 2 different containers for myself for lunches.

Going backwards - release of the final Harry Potter book

I don't know that I talked about the release of Harry Potter 7 and events surrounding that.

First off we did go down late to the big Borders store in the Redmond Town Center. I was amazed at the sheer amount of people there! The children wanted everyone to get dressed up. Devin and I went as muggle parents of a young witch and wizard. The children however did an excellent job with their outfits.

Alaric is dressed as a Quidditch fan wearing blue jeans, a wand in his hand and a snake in one of his pockets. Very obviously the young casual wizard.

Treanna wearing a purple satin dress, a black velvet shrug, a lovely flower corsage, with an additonal flower up in her updo is fashionably dressed to attend the ball. In addition to the above she insisted on bringing her white fluffy kitty Snowflake.

Excuse the photos that not only were taken outside after midnight but with crappy lighting and my phone camera. Normally the pictures are not too bad but at nearly 1 in the morning that isn't always the case. The line was incredibly long that night but we had our book and was on our way home by 1:30 a.m. Devin finished the book by 8am, I had it done by 3:30 pm, and Treanna had it done by 10:30 pm that night. Alaric poor guy took him all of Sunday and part of Monday to finish reading it. All of us enjoyed the book and we were satisfied with the end to a wonderful series.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first day of school, my darling's birthday and the day things really get back into the routines of the majority of the year.

We have been attempting to get back on schedule for several weeks but things keep interfering. Overall I am proud of the progress we have made. I have the kids mostly ready. We have all the required school supplies, we have checked their clothes and picked up the few things they needed. Now of course we have to pack it all up and get it into the backpacks to head off to school. We have even come up with the plan for lunches.

Lunch for the kids at school has been a huge conflict between T and I for the last several years. She wants to have a salad or something different than just a sandwich. Well we have tried several different things and honestly nothing has worked. Last week while picking up something else I saw some Hello Kitty Obento/Bento containers at the dollar store. No I really have no clue where I learned about Bento and what it is. T and A both read about it in a Highlights magazine earlier this year. Well after thinking about it, talking about it with Devin and even eating lunch out at a Japanese restaurant we decided to go ahead and pick up the containers and try it. So I picked up enough for 2 different days so we always have a clean one. I then picked up a few things to make the packing of it easier and quicker (like precooked mini sausages!) and we made some rice. A was not enthusiastic about it at all and said he would stick with the sandwich. Well since I wanted to practice and try this out I made him one as a "trial". They went over very well. Both are very excited about it and this is almost a scary thing that could easily turn into an obsession. But I told the kids that this is a treat and we HAVE to get it packed and in the fridge the night before as I refuse to put them together in the morning.  If they don't get done we can always fall back on the basic sandwich lunch. Tomorrow of course is the real test. Can they eat it in the designated time allowed? Will they get teased by their classmates? Or will as we suspect they set yet another trend for the school and eventually the town? Kind of funny but us fixing a challenge or problem has turned into a trend at school in the past so it is a concern.

Life happens

I was going to be updating more but life happens some days and weeks.

Instead of updating or writing I am going to relax and play Lego Star Wars 2. I am now on the final episode and more than 60% of the way complete with the game. I am also looking for what the next game I am going to play is. I am currently leaning towards Syberia. I think Devin is hoping it will be an excuse for us to buy an Xbox but I would prefer it for the computer.

We have just a little over a week before school starts.

August weekend...

I really should have updated more just was not sure which of the many things to update.

We went to an Aquasox game in Everett the beginning of the month. We even saw the Goodyear Blimp and I took a picture.

Otherwise we are just ramping up for school in about 2.5 more weeks. We in fact just got their teacher assignments in the mail on Saturday. Treanna is getting her first male teacher. She is excited because that was the teacher of one of her best friends last year. Alaric is getting a teacher we know but not really well. He knows her so he is happy as well. Today we picked up a few more things for him for school including the requested 64 color crayola crayon box for Alaric. His teacher says she would rather have that than the other crayons and colored pencils on the list. Easy enough as currently it is easier to find the 64 color crayons than a 24 count colored pencil set.  Clothes wise both kids are pretty much set. Treanna needed shoes and a new coat. The coat was procured at Costco last month when I found it for a really good price. The shoes we had to get already as her other tennis shoes had holes in the bottom. Otherwise she had LOTS of clothes so many we actually made sure everything had something to go with it and only kept stuff she really liked. Alaric needed another pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts which we got today. He has plenty of other clothing but may need another pair of jeans or 2 in October or November. For September I told them they can wear capris and shorts as long as the weather cooperates. Might as well wear out all the clothes they already have before they grow anymore.

I do want to get the kids in swim lessons next month if we can. It might be a bit tough as they seem to go pretty fast in this area but it can't hurt to try. I have tried teaching them myself and other than getting them to not be afraid of the water we just have not made much progress. They can kind of float and kind of dog-paddle.

I have been working on the dreaded chair project as well as getting some other house stuff done. Really we have been enjoying our summer. We have even been doing some crafts. Not as much as we would like but some. I have been filling up the garbage and getting some yard work done. I have lots of stuff that we need to trash yet out in the carport. I have a feeling that the pile for fall cleanup will be rather large. I got the upstairs closet cleaned out. I put away the Christmas china and got rid of the old christmas china. Still have a small pile of stuff that has yet to be put away but progress has been made.

Lego Star Wars

We have had the first game since January when Alaric bought it with his Christmas money. We finally got a computer for the kids up and running in the library a few months ago. I got it put on a table in May and so we have a computer for the kids to use that is out where I can see what all they are doing on it. Plus we have 2 controllers/joysticks for games. For Father's Day the kids bought Devin Lego Star Wars 2. 

After watching Alaric, Devin and even Treanna all playing the game I decided it looked like fun. So I decided to play myself especially once I realized I had access to cheat codes to grant me invincibility. So today after playing pretty regularly for the last 4+ weeks I completely finished Lego Star Wars. I decided it was pretty fun at least with invincibility. I am now considering playing the second game of the original trilogy. However I have to play through an entire level  without invincibility which will suck.

This is probably the first time in my life I can remember playing a game on the computer where I actually enjoyed it and finished it. I have played a few multi-player games like Tribes and even Puzzle Pirates for a while but those were different, as there was not an entire plot to follow. I don't know if I just never had the patience, the ability, or the games before. However this was fun and my confidence to go and try a game I really want to play and have for years is quite a bit higher. I think I will be asking for a copy of the game (Syberia) for Christmas.

The garden

Despite the fact that my weedwhacker needs a mysterious new part that I have not bothered to discovered what it is I still managed to get part of the lawn edged. I remembered that I have a pair of old fashioned scissor like sheers. So between that and just flat out pulling out the weeds along the front flower bed the front beds are now edged. I still need to do along the walk and the trees before mowing but some progress was made.

Not sure when I will get to the mowing or all the rest of the weeds in the yard either. I also managed to pull/yank out all the vinca major sometimes commonly called Periwinkle from the front bed as well. This plant is a ground cover that has been pissing me off in the front bed. It creeps into everything and then gets to big off the ground to really be a good ground cover. However I pulled enough out that had root pieces that I am going to bury some of it on the wooded side of the house to fill in the stark weediness. I figured this isn't supposed to be a weed and will even bloom sometimes when happy. A large bed of this will be quite lovely over there. If it decides not to live I will not be upset at all.

Other updates: The kids and I are going to be resetting some expectations over the next several weeks and especially reestablishing routines. I think that we shall even begin the process of getting up at the time we would for school. That way we don't have to do it at al at once the end of the month. I have done absolutely nothing on the chair project. That should really change soonish. The next steps are 1 sanding all the chair frames and 2 putting the fabric on the backs and bottoms. Trying to decide which to get to next and also contemplating the whole primer question.

Finally a haircut picture!

Ok I have had several requests for a picture of my newest haircut.

This was taken by Devin yesterday morning just after I did my hair. You cant really tell just how curly it is either. I had put my hair up in pin curls and just lightly fluffed it and this was the result. I love the shorter hair and am loving the curls I can get.

Flower pictures from the back garden

I took some pictures of the back garden on the 15th. It is still pretty weed filled but I liked a lot of the flowers. Granted these are not in their prime most of these are a bit on the spent side of blooming. Anyway here goes:

The above picture is a photo of my Malva along the back fence. I was really pleased at how well it did this year. Despite putting it inside a support this year part of it still decided to grow its own way. The plant is almost as tall as me and I just love how many blossoms it has on it.

This picture is of some magenta flowers with some sage leaves. I like the plant though I am completely spacing on what it is called. I got all of these from my friend S. She had them coming up like weeds all over her yard and hated them. I just kept digging them up and bringing them home. I planted them in a tight swath along a 4 foot section of the fence. It has nicely kept any weeds from growing along there. Plus the constant flowers since June have been very lovely to look at.

These are probably my favorite flower of all. This is a pink Dianthus or Carnation-like flower. This is along my back fence as well and it doubled in size this year. Unfortunately only 1 section had flowers on it but they smell heavenly and blend nicely with all the other pink/magenta colored blossoms along the back fence.

This is another perennial that suprised me this year. My balloon flowers really did well this year. I thought they died over the winter but came up late and strong. I love watching the balloons open into these pretty blossoms.

These have a funny story about them. I was at a yard sale in early June and someone was selling this small section of daisies for 50 cents. I figured 50 cents is worth seeing how they would do in my yard. So I bought them, brought them home, cleared a small patch of weeds in the back yard against the house and plunked them down. Watered them a few times and left them alone. This was my suprise! I thought they would be regular daisies but these are fantastic! I just love the wispy edges to the petals. The plant has more than doubled in size and I can easily see this taking over an entire bed in the backyard if left to its own devices. I just love suprises like this.

Last picture:

This is what my new patio chairs look like. I bought 1 each visit to Costco until I had 4. I think they are comfy and eventually I will get some simple cushions for them as well. They stack and go well with the table and even the plastic chairs. I now have enough seating for 7 people outside. To continue the black theme I am contemplating painting all this short little plastic fencing I have black. I think it will look fabulous with all the plants and make it look coordinated and planned. I have a big pile of some white fleurdilis style fencing that is going to get done first before I start on the little picket fencing. Almost everything else in the backyard is black wrought iron so I think it will be very nice when all finished.

Just uploaded some pictures

So today's blog post will feature 2 different pictures.

The above is the picture from a few months ago of the new windshield going into the Ford Focus. It was really cool to watch it. It has also made the Focus much nicer to drive. Besides the Focus is all our now!

The next pictures is one of the chairs from the dreaded chair project. This was one of my school chairs that I put some foam and some of the upholstery fabric on. They turned out very nice and are much more comfortable to sit on now.

I have more pictures to post to the blog later. Especially of my garden flowers. I am also planning on assisting the children in updating their blogs since we took pictures of them with their current collections.

Thunder and Synchronized!

This morning at about 9:45 I was woken from sleep by a very loud crack of thunder. About 5 minutes later it started to rain. It nicely cooled the air and gave a drink to my garden. Treanna was slightly terrified from the sound as she was very much asleep before the thunder. Alaric of course was like OOOH I thought I saw a blue flash first! The heat has made it difficult to get to sleep before the house has cooled off.

Today I did something that absolutely terrified me but has needed to get done. After my computer was rebuilt my entire contact list and calendar was not there. Devin was not quite sure how to get it transferred over and frankly didn't have time. So we have put off getting my phone/handheld resynced to the computer via Outlook. Well after doing just a bit of looking today I figured it out and got it to synchronize. It went just fine with only one small hiccup. The hiccup was the loss of all my pictures on the phone. I had taken a ton of pictures in the Colossal Fossil exhibit at the science center. Now I have none. I think the last time my phone ran out of battery life was actually when I lost them. However I now have space to begin taking more pictures.

So I need to take pictures of Treanna with her Bella Sara card portfolio, pictures of Alaric with his Transformers 3D cards, pictures of my flowers, and pictures of my chair project.

BTW if there is anyone who finds this who would like to trade with the kids please drop me email. Both Treanna and Alaric have several doubles of their cards and are looking for more people to trade with. So far we have found just someone for Treanna locally and in Ohio.

The sister, Becca

No, you are not chopped liver. Since I did not have prior permission I did not use your name in my post! Now you know!

You have to admit its funny when your family reads your blog to keep up with your life.

Its hot today. I am sure glad I have electricity and plenty of fans to help keep the house cool. Not quite air conditioned cool but cool than outside!  Luckily my large trees on the south west and east corners of the house do help keep some of the sun off.

It was awesome!

Transformers was awesome. The kids both enjoyed it as well. Heck even my Mom called and told me she loved it! We wish we had enough in the budget to go and see it again! Now of course we are excited that the next one is apparently already in the works and will be directed by Michael Bay again.

Also this week we have been having a good time with my youngest brother. One of the things we were asked to do is take him driving. He just got his permit. Oh my! I have glimpsed our future in quite a few more years and while terrifying it was not as bad as I feared. It has been a lot of fun to take him around a little bit. We also have been playing lots of computer games and console games as well with him. Plus we did the whole fireworks thing on the 3rd and the 4th.

I still don't have a picture of my new haircut. But it is continuing to grow on me. Even not spending the time to curl it I still like it. Tomorrow we are off on a road trip to return my brother and visit some family. Hope y'all have a great weekend.

Quick Update

Mommy school is going ok so far. Their typing skills are definitely improving.

We got to see friends from out of town last week and it was awesome! Plus I did a lot of work on the house and got it caught up back to manageable levels. This week Devin is on vacation all week. In addition we get to have my little brother up visiting for the week. He has been so much fun! Saturday we take him back home and get to see my Mom and another sister.

Today I had an appointment in Kirkland. Afterwards we went out to Olive Garden for a very nice lunch date. It was pleasant and the meal was pretty good as well, about what we expect. Later in the afternoon I got a haircut. This is almost rather shocking for me as this is the shortest I have had my hair for years. I think I am going to like it. Devin says its cute, which is definitely good. I needed a style that was a bit quicker to dry, was easier to curl and would be easier to do something with after showering. With me trying to get my workout done every morning before my shower I was having trouble with my longer hair.

Happy 4th of July! We are going to see Transformers first thing in the morning!

Reading, Summer starts and Mommy School

We finally got the Amazon order my son was waiting for. He saved his money for a Lego Droid pack and so was very excited when they arrived. Tacked onto the order was the Fifth Element on DVD which we needed to replace the VHS with. In addition was the 2nd book in a series by Dennis McKiernon. I had picked up Once Upon a Winter's Night a few years ago. It was a retelling of one of my favourite fairy tales East O' The Sun and West O' The Moon. It was fantastic and felt very much alive to me. Well the 2nd one Once Upon a Summer Day was just as fantastic. I think I finished it in a single day. Of course everything else was neglected. I did a lot of reading this week since I figure I won't be reading quite the same for the next several months.

Today was the last day of school for my children until September. They were both happy and sad. We had a few tears as they will miss friends and the routine of school. Treanna especially as quite a few of her friends move up to the middle school this next year.

However Friday is the start of "Mommy School". People always look at me odd but that is what the children named it. Mommy School is all the things Mom wants to teach them. For example they learned a little bit of swimming last summer as well as how to make scrambled eggs and other various little things. This summer we are formalizing it a bit more and I have a long list of things they want to learn or need to work on. Friday however we are also having our first field trip. KMPS the local country radio station we listen too has events they do periodically where with a coupon you can get into something for just 94 cents. (Their broadcast is 94.1 hence the 94 cents) Friday it is for the Pacific Science Center. Alaric and I went not too long ago but this way we can all go with friends which should be fun. Over the weekend we will start working out more specifics and I will make up spelling assignments. Of course I also need to find some math basic computation quizzes that can be timed. It will be fun and they will have plenty of things to keep them busy.

Movie review and Father's Day

Well Friday night I was able to go watch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with Devin and Nick. I was suprised at just how much I enjoyed the movie. It was funny, serious and definitely entertaining. I think my favorite part though was some of the personal interactions that you get a hint of in the trailers.  There are so many more movies coming out that I am not even sure I have them all on the calendar.

 I am seriously excited about the Golden Compass coming out in December. Based on a series by Phillip Pullman called "His Dark Materials". I just today finished another reread of them. Nothing really new and different came to mind in this reread except how much I enjoyed reading them.

For Father's day the main present was a big hit! I had purchased a Dr. Who Sonic Screwdriver from Think Geek for Devin. He likes it and says it will most likely go to work with him with all the rest of his toys. Then Alaric helped buy Lego Star Wars II game as he though Dad (and of course him) would enjoy that. Treanna found a Transformer's T-shirt with Optimus Prime on it. I still need to wash it but he was pleased. The kids were glad their presents went over so well.

Gardening I am way behind. However I have hit my goal of at least filling the bin each week. Last week it was the atrocious bush in the front corner. It now has some clear ground underneath it and is trimmed up a bit. Today it was the big leaf maple. Devin cut down some of the branches that were rubbing on the front of the house, I cut them into smaller pieces and the kids put them in the bin.

The last day of school for the kids is Thursday. They are both excited and sad about school ending. Still lots of little things to do and get done before the last day. We already know they both had their transfers approved for the next school  year. At least we will have some continuity there. Lots of other things changing but they cope better with it now than they used to. We are also still working up the course of study and activities for "mommy school" for the summer. During the summer we do life skills like cooking and laundry and also work on skills we think they need to do more of like writing, reading and math. 

There is a lot more going on behind the scenes. I am happy my computer is mostly back working and I am gradually getting used to having a desk again. Still got into a few bad habits over the last month or so that I am working to reverse. Plus the stupid cats fighting or ? in my backyard keep driving me nuts, I can hear them through the windows. Otherwise things are about a medium. I try to not discuss negative or health issues in my blog. Now off to get the rest of my chores done before bed.

All is almost right with the world

I am writing this blog post on my regular desktop computer. I have a good start to things being back in their places. To be sure things are upgraded and I still have many more programs and things to get set up. For some odd reason my calendar and contacts did not transfer well. I don't want to lose them off my handheld so am holding off a sync until I figure that out.

In addition I was finally able to get my organic strawberries. The store has been out the last few times I tried to get them. So with a rain check in hand I bought 4 pounds of organic strawberries. Last night they were had with Tillamook oregan strawberry ice cream and dark chocolate syrup. This morning they accompanied crisp waffles with a light dusting of powdered sugar. I am so glad I discovered that my egg slicer would slice strawberries, it makes nicer slices than I could ever do on my own. The strawberry slices looked quite lovely on the waffles dusted with the powdered sugar. Of course to wash it down I made a single mug of Irish Breakfast with a splash of milk and a dash of sugar.

A friend recently gave me some very yummy jams and jellies and I made scones earlier in the week to try them out. Very tasty indeed. I currently only opened the peach and cherry jams but they were wonderful. Also in the basket was some blackberry fizz concentrate. I have been having it all afternoon with some lemon-lime seltzer and it is very tasty and interesting. I think I will like it very much. The other thing of note in the basket was some apple walnut chutney. I like a lunch I have had at a couple of tearooms called a "ploughman's lunch" which consists of a cheese thingy, a cold meat pie, some crusty bread, some chutney and a green salad. I would love to do this for myself for lunch I just don't know where to get the cheese thingy. I currently cannot even remember what it is called. I could probably eat this daily for a week or 2 before getting tired of it or running out chutney.

For the final little update on the chair saga. All 5 of my school type chairs now have upholstered seats. After picking up sanding discs for the sander and a large pile of paint samples we made a decision. I shall sand all the chairs and then primer them. Then we shall paint them in Laura Ashley paint in a lovely light beigish/brown color called Wicker Chair. I could not locate a sample of said color online or I would share it. I now have a grand total of 1 chair sanded and ready to be primered. I am continuing the search for a better dining room table though one of my wonderful sisters is going to give me one that would be perfect to sand and paint to go with the chairs.

yeah no new blog post for nearly a month

I know its been a while.

1st off my main computer is still not quite working. It is rebuilt and installed and ready to receive my profile. However that is where we seem to be bogged down. It is not liking transferring my profile. So now we need to figure out a different way to transfer all my data and settings over. However I did get a chance to paint the case with the last of the light green spray paint I had. So it is a much prettier color than beige.

I have made progress on the craft room. I have worked on the chairs and even covered quite a few with the fabric. However the 1st attempt at a new finish looked terrible. However we are now looking at paint so I will be sanding, priming and painting the chairs.

I have a pile of things to get rid of. Things in the carport and elsewhere. Slowly things are coming together and it is not quite as messy in the house.

My peonies are blooming. My columbine has gone nuts. Plus quite a few things that I can't remember what they are are nearing blooms. My yard needs more work but it will get done gradually.

I know I have more but will work on those over the next week or so.

Wonderful day!

Today is just a good day. I did well going to yard sales this morning, the weather is beautiful. I picked up yet more clothing for myself, a gorgeous heavy glass cake plate cover and a rolling duffel bag to replace the giant suitcase we have that almost always goes overweight.  I don't feel as beat up by the allergies. Its just good.

I also called and ordered my Victoria Subscription today, which I know added to just how wonderful I feel.

I think I am going to head outside and plant the little fern and the shasta daisies I bought at a yard sale today. The daisies should do well in the back yard and I will have yet another spot where no weed can grow!

 Yesterday I helped my girlfriend plant her plants for her yard we bought earlier in the week. I still have a couple more to help plant but we should be able to finish that up fairly quickly. We did have fun earlier in the week going to Flower World to pick them all out. We were there for several hours and still didn't find everything we were looking for.

Devin got back from his latest trip safely. In fact when I got up in the morning he had left me a box of bombay chai tea and a cute card on my dressing table. I really liked the card and it just set the mood for the entire day.

My fabric for my dining room chairs arrived. It is a bit darker of an olive green than I originally thought it would be but I think it will end up working out well. I started to recover one but discovered that the finish is coming off the chairs so they need to be redone, so Devin was right that it would be nice wood. Plus my staples I had on hand for the staple gun were a bit too long. So I need to get staples, some furniture stripper, and then a stain/finish for the chairs so I can recover them. I am figuring on stripping and making padded seats for my current chairs as well. Then I will have 2 sets of 5 chairs that will coordinate and be comfortable to sit in. I still have my 2 french chairs I want to reupholster as well but those look a lot more involved so will wait for a while yet.

In other house news, I am still looking for a desk 48-51 inches wide to put in the library. We have tried the library table but it currently just holds another computer. So we decided to just bow to the inevitable and get a desk for the computer there. That way we will have more room in the library to walk through or work.  I will have to get rid of yet more furniture and chairs soon as they appear to be taking over the house. Good thing I didn't go get even more of them!

Life is stressful

Sometimes.

I have been dealing with a lot of family drama lately. So far I think it will end up resolved in a positive manner for all involved. Needless to say this was stressful.

Other news: Congratulations to my nephew Ethan who earned his Eagle Scout award and is having that award ceremony this coming week. Also my oldest niece Chloe is graduating from high school! Wow!

Today Devin is in Arizona where he is visiting his family before doing yet another presentation on Tuesday. At least this time he was able to use his travel for a little bit of personal travel as well. We had to take him to the airport really early this morning and then we came home and crashed. The kids woke me up with breakfast in bed this morning. They made me baked amish oatmeal and tea, it was really cute. Plus they gave me a card, tissue paper flowers, and paintings for Mother's Day Friday after school. The poem Alaric wrote in his card just cracks me up "grass is green, water is blue, when I'm around you are not blue."

I have been loving our partially sunny weather. It has allowed me to catch up with my gardening. The backyard is relatively weed free since I like gardening when under stress. I got the grass mowed, and even started edging in the front. Also my friend S was redoing her yard and thus getting rid of her herbs. So I took an entire car load of rosemary, basil, 2 different types of Thyme and lots of chive plants home. They all seem to be fairly happy in my backyard so far. Also I finally finished my 1 chair per a Costco trip buying and got all 4 wrought iron chairs for my patio table. I also picked up the long 100ft hose I wanted and it is already nicer to use.

I am sure I have other news but it does not occur to me right at this moment. Other than to say I dislike Scotch Broom very very much as it hates me. I like being able to breathe without having allergy issues. Not sure why but this year is particularly bad.